Sioux Falls Mayor Paul TenHaken shows decency by condemning hateful rumor about Haitians living in Ohio
A prominent South Dakota Republican is defending Haitians, who are being wrongfully accused of eating cats, dogs and wild birds, all part of a purported takeover that is ruining an Ohio community.
That’s nonsense, of course, but it didn’t stop former President Donald Trump from repeating the unfounded and racist rumor about Springfield, Ohio, during last week’s presidential debate.
“They’re eating the dogs. The people that came in, they’re eating the cats,” Trump said during the ABC primetime debate. “They’re eating the pets of the people that live there. And this is what’s happening in our country.”
Springfield Mayor Rob Rue and City Manager Bryan Heck both denied there is any problem with pets disappearing. The animals are not winding up on the plates of Haitians who have moved to the city recently to fill jobs that no locals were willing to take, the officials said.
Yes, there have been issues with the arrival of about 20,000 Haitian immigrants in a city of 58,000. That’s inevitable, but accusing people of eating pets and ducks and geese from city parks is bizarre and totally without foundation.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, also dismissed the rumors. The governor is sending in state troopers and $2.5 million to assist the city.
“We need to focus on moving forward and not dogs and cats being eaten,” DeWine said on ABC’s “This Week” Sunday morning.
“It’s just ridiculous,” he said. Most Republicans are weary of Trump going off on these tangents instead of criticizing Vice President Kamala Harris based on the legitimate differences they have. They want him to make a case for his return to the White House, not spread wild stories.
Apparently, they haven’t been paying attention the last decade.
Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, was more than willing to disrupt life in a city in his state if it somehow garnered votes, donations and media attention.
“If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people then that’s what I’m going to do,” he said during a very contentious interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.
Those repeated lies and hateful rhetoric were too much for Sioux Falls Mayor Paul TenHaken, who posted his disagreement with this venomous attack.
“I have been to Haiti many times. They are a beautiful people who live in the harshest conditions and have a joyful spirit when their situation calls for anything but,” TenHaken wrote on X. “They are not ‘dog eaters’ and the savages that some in the public eye are making them out to be. They are people, made in God’s image, who like all of us, are seeking the best life possible for them and their families.”
A lot of people agree with him. TenHaken’s post has generated a lot of media attention. I praised him on X and that post has received more than 300 likes and a lot of shares. He struck a nerve with this comment.
I talked with TenHaken (seen above in an image from the city of Sioux Falls’ website) about his trips to Haiti when I wrote a long profile about him in 2020 for an Iowa newspaper. He is a Minnesota native but attended Dordt College, a private Christian school in the deeply conservative northwest corner of the Hawkeye State. Faith is a central part of his life.
That’s why he spoke out on Sunday.
TenHaken is the co-founder of The Dispatch Project, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that organizes short-term mission trips for businessmen and women. It sends people to Haiti, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic every year, and he has been on several missions.
TenHaken wrote about one on The Dispatch Project’s home page several years ago. It explains his decision to defend Haitians.
“The heaviest experience I’ve ever had was on my third Dispatch trip to Haiti. We were walking up in the mountains for what we call ‘mountain ministry,’ and we noticed a small fire and hut over in the bushes,” he wrote. “As we approached, a woman emerged from her hut looking very tired, almost beat down. She was holding a very young baby that I immediately noticed had orange hair because of a lack of protein and a huge malnourished belly. She started looking at me and saying something, repeatedly, to me.
“I looked at our translator and asked, ‘What is she saying to me?’ Initially, he wouldn’t respond, but she kept repeating herself and I pressed again, ‘What is she saying?’ He finally said to me, ‘She wants you to take her baby back with you to the United States because her baby is dying here.’”
It was, TenHaken wrote, “an incredibly difficult moment for me and one I think about often. Can you imagine? A mother willing to give her child away to a stranger sent from God just so her child can live? It’s unthinkable.”
He said that is why The Dispatch Project exists and is so important.
“People need to simply see and experience these tragic moments for themselves so they can begin to understand how important it is for us to do something about it. Starting now.”
That’s what he did with his post. He didn’t condemn Trump. Why? Does he not want to start a back-and-forth with Trump lovers and haters? Does he want to maintain political viability in case he runs for statewide office someday?
Those are worthy questions, but right now, it’s just good to see him taking a stand for people without power or connections.
Former Rapid City Mayor Steve Allender, who also is a Republican, praised TenHaken.
“You are a good man Paul,” Allender commented on X.
One person commented on TenHaken’s post by noting that Gov. Kristi Noem and the former — and possibly future — president were spreading hate and ignorance and as a conservative Republican, TenHaken was still on their side.
“These are the people you align with Paul. Kristi and Trump,” he wrote. “You can’t claim holier than thou and support them.”
TenHaken pushed back.
“I ‘align’ with no one. I align with my values,” he replied. “And I speak up when those values call me to.”
I heard him speak about his values when we talked in 2020. It was during the Covid pandemic, and workers at the Smithfield meat processing plant, many of them immigrants, were being shunned and even attacked. TenHaken condemned such words and actions.
There were consequences, he told me. He and his wife were dealing with social media blasts, and the Sioux Falls Police Department was keeping an eye on his house. But he spoke out on what he believed in, just like he did on Sunday.
Other prominent Republicans are silent. Noem was always going to side with Trump no matter what he says or does. She has made that clear for several years.
It’s disappointing — but not surprising — that Sens. John Thune and Mike Rounds and Rep. Dusty Johnson lack the courage and decency to condemn Trump and Vance for spreading such vile rumors. But they are unwilling to risk the hateful words and threats of violence that landed like a deluge of poison in Springfield, where threats were made against Haitians, city officials, schools and more.
Paul TenHaken couldn’t take it, and he made that clear. It would be nice if Thune, Rounds, Johnson and other Republicans would join him in rejecting such hate.
How about showing some sense of morality and leadership? Paul TenHaken did.
Fourth-generation South Dakotan Tom Lawrence has written for several newspapers and websites in South Dakota and other states and contributed to The New York Times, NPR, The London Telegraph, The Daily Beast and other media outlets. Republish with permission.
